inexplicable delays

[Smellhound]

I've been experiencing this problem for months. And in the process of trying to fix it (as well as other issues), I've reinstalled my entire system on a new boot drive twice and upgraded to Live 8 (currently using 8.04). I've experienced it with the last several updates of Live (including versions of 7).

When going back and forth between different windows applications and Live, it takes Live a good 5 seconds to engage and let me control it. It's like the GUI temporarily freezes up. And even when it does engage, it does the same thing when I try to go into the file browser folders on the left (though only when I'm accessing the hard drives directly...not plugins). I've contacted Live support about it and they told me to try some things but nothing worked. Considering I'm using a completely fresh install of Windows as well as all of my programs, I suspect this is somehow a hardware issue...but I honestly have no idea.

Something that might be significant is that it didn't start happening all at once. When I first noticed it, the delay would happen for maybe the first 10 minutes of working on a project then stop for the rest of the day. Progressively it got more and more frequent and now it happens all the time. It is verrry annoying. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

[3dot...]

if it happens only with live ...then it's not a hw problem..

[Smellhound]

Wouldn't it somehow have to be linked to my hardware configuration if Ableton support has never heard of this happening to everyone else AND it's happening with multiple versions of Live?

I'm just completely baffled how I'm the only person who's experiencing it.

[adventurepants_]

Ive had this happen as well. My 8800gt does not play properly and has the issue you describe. If i use the generic Microsoft driver and not the Nvidia one, the lag is much reduced. Just for giggles, put another video card in your rig and see if it improves.

[Smellhound]

will do, thanks for the tip

[Smellhound]

I just tried a brand new, different model video card...no change. It's so odd because I've been using the same video card for a couple years, I've been continually updating Live, and I've had to reinstall Windows and all my programs a few times but this problem has persisted for about 6 months. And it seems to be getting worse...yesterday there was a short delay EVERY time I clicked on Live to do anything. So frustrating.

[McQ714]

happens to me too... but only in larger sets. the audio isn't affected, in my case. if i'm multi-tasking, the Live window takes a sec or two to re-open. initially, i just attributed it to too large a Live set and too many other things going on, i.e. downloads. now, i think it may be because the hard drive i have all of my samples on is nearing capacaity. 300 gb hard drive with only 10 gb to spare at this point and i'm too lazy to put the new one i've bought in there and get some of those samples transferred over. i know it's not a video card issue. it only happens to me when i've minimized Live.

[LiquidFix]

I've been having the same issue. using 32 bit vista home, hp laptop, live suite 8.04, focusrite saffire.

[Smellhound]

McQ714: i don't think that's the issue I'm having. Yours definitely sounds related to either your storage, processor, or memory, or a combination of those. I ruled out all of those on mine long ago. It only happens with Live, and it happens if I start a brand new session without anything loaded into it. And it's a 4-5 second delay (ie: long enough to drive me insane), but only when the file browser within live is open.

hey LiquidFix, so is it happening exactly how I described? If the file browser within Live is open, it's at least a 4-5 second delay every time I click on Live after doing something else. So if it's minimized or I just click on the desktop, or another program, it happens. And within Live if I access either of the plugins lists and try to go back to the file browser, it happens again, every time.

I'm wondering if it's related to our Saffieres. I tried a couple different audio cards and it didn't fix anything but I'm starting to wonder if it's something in the registry. But I'm completely out of my element when it comes to that stuff. In any case, it's good to finally hear of someone else experiencing this. I'm going to DM you about it.

[Dr Dub]

I think from what you describe, that it could be related to Harddisk or optical drive Access.
It only happens when the browser is open, that s a sign for it. Even the Windows Explorer freezes when you put a cd or dvd in your drive until it finds the Disc.
So it could have to do with your HDDs - could you disconnect your sample drive?
Or you could try to remove all media from your optical drives and perhaps cardreader and try to disable them in your system preferences or even the Bios.

Don t know if this will work, so try at your own risk..